“It’s all about Mal Brough, and he’s just seeking to use the LNP in an attempt to get back into the Australian parliament,” Mr Slipper told ABC radio.

“His re-election in my view to the Australian parliament once again would be a complete disaster, not only for the party, but also for the parliament and the nation.

“Look, I have no respect for Mal Brough. He was overrated when he was a minister. It was all about him.

“He was perpetually on an ego trip and the only reason he’s joining the LNP, a party he despises, is because he wants to try to get back into federal politics.”

For his part, Mr Brough was more interested, he said, in the “one Coast, one voice, one message” recipe he said was needed for the Sunshine Coast to receive the level of recognition it deserved from State and Federal governments.

Mr Brough said his aim was to win the respect and support of party members and voters ahead of a push to win pre-selection for the seat of Fisher at the next federal election.

His ambition puts him on a collision course with Mr Slipper, who is under fire and investigation over his claims for parliamentary entitlements.

But yesterday, Mr Brough’s focus was on how to get outcomes for a region he said had a legitimate right to aspire to higher standards and to retain the “wonderful sense of community” it possessed.

“Everyone seeking to be a public representative needs to work with business, the community and environmental lobby to galvanise public opinion about what we like and what we want,” he said.

“Environmental sustainability is part of that. We have a right to set our own standards higher than elsewhere.”

Mr Brough said such an approach was not “anti-business”, but about creating certainty about what was expected here.

He said a regional plan that had both local and state support and community backing would be impossible to ignore.

He said priorities consistently expressed in community surveys would only become a reality when bureaucrats understood without any ambiguity what the region wanted and what it sought to achieve.

But as a benchmark Mr Brough said the region could do worse than measure itself against the level of infrastructure and services delivered to the national capital.

“In most parts of Canberra, if you never stepped outside the place you would think you were living in the luckiest country in the world,” he said.

“We would be grateful for a percentage of that. It would take time but it would be a good benchmark.”

Mr Brough lashed out at the Queensland Labor Government, saying it had treated the Sunshine Coast with total contempt and had done so for a long time.

He said the Sunshine Coast had always been among the fastest growing regions in Australia.

Infrastructure to support that growth was pivotal to quality of life.

Mr Brough re-enters conservative politics after he split with it over aspects of the amalgamation process involving the Liberal and National parties in Queensland.

He has been required to attend a series of meetings with the party hierarchy, a process that has angered some sections of its local branches on the Sunshine Coast still smarting about its failure to dis-endorse Mr Slipper before this year’s federal election.

Mr Brough addressed his past stance with a statement released on Friday.

“Many of you are aware I made some critical comments regarding the LNP, particularly in its formative stages. These comments need to be seen in the context of what was occurring at the time,” he said.

“Like many major political events, the decision to form the LNP was hotly debated.

“People of goodwill were on all sides of the debate, but as often happens, there were some with ulterior motives that peddled misinformation and confusion which was never in the interest of the non-Labor side of politics.

“It is true to say that if I had known then what I know now about the LNP, those comments would never have been made.”

“It’s all about Mal Brough, and he’s just seeking to use the LNP in an attempt to get back into the Australian parliament.”